February 2022

14 February 2022 – South Africa has inked a pear export deal with China, as it seeks to get into new markets. The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development announced yesterday that fresh pears from South Africa could now be exported to China. This was after the South African government and the General […]

11 February 2022 – Manufacturing production decreased by 0.1% in December, compared with December 2020, but total manufacturing production for 2021 increased by 6.4% compared with 2020. Statistics South Africa reports that the largest negative contribution to December’s manufacturing output was made by motor vehicles, parts and accessories and other transport equipment, declining by 8% and contributing -0.5 of a percentage point. Petroleum, chemical products, rubber and plastic products also contributed negatively to

10 February 2022 – The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) says the Business Confidence Index (BCI) figure of 94.1 in January demonstrates business and society’s tenacity and resilience. The BCI increased by 2.1 index points between December and January, despite negative non-economic incidents in January. Following the destructive non-economic events that occurred at the beginning of

9 February 2022 – Trade between Africa and China rose to a record high last year, according to recently released data by China’s customs agency. China is Africa’s largest trading partner, and last year’s growth strengthens this position. The value of trade between Africa and China rose by 35% from 2020 to $254 billion last year, mainly due to

8 February 2022 – The South African wine industry was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and will take a few years to fully recover, but wine businesses are changing the way they do business and the industry has fast-tracked tools aimed at becoming more robust, adaptable, competitive and sustainable, wine industry organisation Vinpro says. Wine businesses have

7 February 2022 – The latest increase in the repo rate as announced by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) should curb inflation, which could hold more benefits than disadvantages for South African agriculture in the long term. This was according to Corné Kruger, CFO of integrated agricultural company, Senwes. The SARB’s Monetary Policy Committee

4 February 2022 – Towards the end of 2021, when Covid offered a slight reprieve, my colleagues and I travelled across a few provinces of SA, meeting agribusiness bosses. Our visits were aimed purely at connecting, and understanding business conditions after various waves of the pandemic and the disruptions that followed. At the time, the

3 February 2022 – Against a backdrop of travel bans, higher inflationary pressures, high unemployment figures, lower vaccination rates and electricity supply constraints, analytics company GlobalData believes South Africa’s immediate economic growth prospects are grim. The company has revised its 2022 gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate forecast for South Africa to 2.1%, down from a forecast of

2 February 2022 – The profitability and economic sustainability of the citrus industry is in jeopardy due to the hike in input and service costs, according to the Citrus Growers Association (CGA). The organisation’s chief executive, Justin Chadwick, said in his weekly newsletter last week that indications were that this was set to continue. “This

1 February 2022 – SA’s trade surplus narrowed to R30.14bn in December, from a revised R35.84bn November, SA Revenue Service data showed on Monday. Exports fell 4% on a month-on-month basis to R156.3bn, reflecting the effects of the lockdown restrictions that followed the outbreak of the Omicron Covid-19 variant. However, the trade surplus for 2021